Is controlling lust forcibly helpful or harmful?

From: Vivek Kikaan P
I am new in KC, so asking this question. Please tell that if we try to control lust forcefully to be faithful to Krishna’s Love, then, is that a temporary Mental state, a rise in consciousness or a forceful harm to our shaking consciousness?

Transcript

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any other questions? question from Vivek Ikan Prabhu is it is controlling lust forcefully helpful or harmful does it indicate an increase in our love for Krishna or is it just a temporary mental state or is it a harm to our shaking consciousness answer it depends on what is the motivation and what is the nature of the action we are doing so in 3.41 3.36 to 3.43 Krishna talks about how to deal with lust in 3.41 he does talk about sensual regulation in the beginning control the senses and in this way curb lust and later on he says in 3.43 rise to the spiritual platform and thereby rising to the spiritual platform, conquer lust completely 3.43 so now sensory regulation is a necessary but not sufficient step for dealing with lust necessary in the sense that if there is no sensory regulation there is no hope ever of controlling lust because we are like putting fuel in fire and the fire will never get extinguished so now sensory regulation itself what level of sensory regulation one can have will depend on person to person that’s why there is brahmachari ashram there is grahastha ashram and like that there are multiple standards and each of us according to our nature can decide how we are going to regulate our senses there are certain principles which of course we have to follow but then there is individual level of seriousness, commitment and all that which will determine at what level we will practice so now as i said sensory regulation is necessary but it is not sufficient not sufficient because when we we are all by nature pleasure seeking so if we just cut off sensory pleasure then naturally we feel deprived and that sense of deprivation can make us feel either irritable or you know we will try to find some substitute pleasure for that deprivation of the pleasure that is coming from lust and that can come in many ways but two major ways can be one is anger you know we snap at everything that goes wrong and we become irritable and angry or otherwise it comes as pride now we look down just because i am controlling my senses so i look down at everyone who is not able to control the senses but the point is both of these are material and of course another thing that can happen is we are not able to control the senses then we may go into depression and we may go into a self-loathing mood where we look down at ourselves and where we develop a sort of self-hatred also all these are undesirable complexes the point is we want to think about Krishna we are not primarily concerned about about controlling the senses or controlling lust our primary purpose is becoming devoted to Krishna so in the 11th canto in the Uddhava Gita it is said that a devotee who is unable to control the senses should not become a frustrated devotee of renunciation and one should not become renunciation centered one should stay Krishna centered so essentially our focus should be on trying to increase our devotional activities as much as possible and it should be focused on trying to connect with Krishna more and more and that should be our primary endeavor and if we are able to control the senses well and good if we find that there are some lapses then as soon as we realize that what we have done is wrong we shake ourselves we get up and start moving again so if we dwell too much on the lapses then we are more of the we are more guilt conscious or more will become more depressed all those complexes will happen so the important point is to stay connected with Krishna because it is not our will power alone that is going to cure lust it is our devotion to Krishna that is ultimately going to cure lust so now regarding whether our controlling lust forcefully what is it it depends on how we are doing it if we are just by a sheer act of saying no no no no no that will at best be a temporary mental state at other times it can become negative also in the sense that as I said it will lead to and of course it can lead to other complications also so more so we may have to say no when especially the mind gets agitated and we get provoked by sense objects but immediately following that no should be a yes that means we chant Krishna’s names or we absorb ourselves in some devotional activities and by observing ourselves absorbing ourselves in some devotional activity some form of constructive activity so we should ourselves make a list of activities that we can do which can relatively easily absorb ourselves in constructive activities in service to Krishna and then when we do that then every time the negative agitation of lust becomes a spur for positive absorption in Krishna and that positive absorption in Krishna is definitely a sign of our progress towards Krishna of our increased devotion to Krishna so don’t be focused on we shouldn’t be focused on just controlling lust forcefully or otherwise certainly some amount of force in terms of will power is required but the will power can be initially for giving up the negative but essentially the will power needs to be on connecting with the positive on connecting with Krishna and if we stay connected with Krishna like this then definitely we will be going closer and closer to Krishna and gradually the agitation because of lust will become lesser and lesser thank you Hare Krishna